Details
General
| Morphemic form: | {imaq}N |
| New orthography: | imaq, immat |
| Old orthography: | imaĸ, ímat |
| Sources: | [13, 17, 8, 16, 19] |
| Combinations: | View list |
| Right sandhi: | Default/none |
| Inflection sandhi: | Geminating |
| Stem type(s): | Weak q-stem |
Description and behaviour
Form and usage:
This stem has two meanings:
- 'content (of
Possessor)', usually with a possessive ending. This seems to be the basic meaning, according to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [21]. - 'sea', both with possessive and non-possessive endings. Kleinschmidt [13] suggests that this meaning may have been derived from an understanding of the sea as 'the contents of the sea basin'.
Schultz-Lorentzen [16] records two separate forms, ima for 'content', but imaĸ for 'sea'. However, this appears to be the only dictionary that makes this distinction. Neither the older dictionary by Kleinschmidt [13], nor the newest ones, including Oqaatsit [19], records two different forms, nor is this distinction supported by the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [21], which lists both meanings under the same, single historic form, {ima(ʀ)}.
Inflection
Declension pattern:
| Stem type: | Weak q-stem |
| Declension type: | p-declined |
| Declension sandhi: | Geminating |
| Gemination type: | m⇒mm |
| Stem before consonant | Stem before vowel | Notable forms | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New orthography | imma | ima | imaq, immap, immat, |
| New orthography | íma | ima | imaq, ímap, ímat, |
| Phonemic orthography | imma | ima | imaq, immap, immat, |
Meanings and examples
Both with and without a possessive ending. According to Kleinschmidt [13] often in 3sg/sg possessive allative imaanut.
- imaanut, to(wards) the sea
[13]
With no explicit possessor given. Kleinschmidt suggests that this is implicitly understood as 'the contents of the sea basin'.
- imarput, the sea surrounding us/our land
[13]
Literally: 'our sea', with 1pl/sg absolutive possessive.
Almost always with a possessive ending. It can be used of the contents of a container, but also e.g. the contents of a book (which is likely a derived meaning from the first sense).